Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter where we are learning of the weaponry that we as believers in Christ have been given in order to withstand the pressures of this very dark world. In the previous verse the Apostle Peter challenged us to love one another. In order to make it in this world we must have the ultimate remedy to all that is wrong. And that remedy is the love of God. It is only His kind of love that is transcendent and transformative.
This week I have been contemplating a song by Rich Mullins. It goes like this: There's a wideness in God's mercy I cannot find in my own. And He keeps His fire burning to melt this heart of stone. Keeps me aching with a yearning, keeps me glad to have been caught in the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God. Now I've seen no band of angels but I've heard the soldiers' songs. Love hangs over them like a banner love within them leads them on to the battle on the journey and it's never gonna stop. Ever widening their mercies and the fury of His love.
In that song, Mullins speaks of the type of love that endures and lays down one's life for His friends. This is the cornerstone concept of the Bible. This is the love that has been made available to all those who have been shaken enough to our core causing us to ask the right questions and to honestly pursue the truth. The Bible speaks of this truth and this love as one in the same. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the God who came to this world to rescue us from ourselves.
The spotlight weaponry in today's passage is the word of God. All of the Bible which is the word of God, points us to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. All who have ever honestly considered His claims have come away changed by Him. In every book of the Bible He is foretold. There are over 300 specific Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in His first coming. The reason this is the case is due to the fact that He is God and He offers a personal relationship with all honest and humble enough to believe that His work on the cross remedied our damned condition.
In v.23 of today's passage we read, "Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever."
The phrase, "Having been born again" is one word in the Greek and it is a perfect passive participle. The result is in the past with present results. The believer in Christ has in the past been made alive to God and the relationship will only get better as time rolls on. This verb informs us that the word of God played a major role in the process of us coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter compares the word of God to incorruptible seed that creates life. This seed is a small investment with large potential value. And, the word of God is an investment whose value depends on the environment where it is received. And, the only soil wherein this seed flourishes is the one which is believing soil.
This seed takes the character of its source. In the previous verse the Apostle exhorted us to love one another authentically. When we were born again, the Father’s nature was given to us. We can only be holy because He is holy. We can love only because that’s who God is and His Spirit enables us to love.
This seed takes the character of its source. In the previous verse the Apostle exhorted us to love one another authentically. When we were born again, the Father’s nature was given to us. We can only be holy because He is holy. We can love only because that’s who God is and His Spirit enables us to love.
In v.24 of today's passage we read, "because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away."
It is the love of God that trains us to believe that we can be honest about our sinfulness and yet be convinced that we remain to be the object of His love. It is His love that convinces us that He loves us precisely because of our sinfulness. And, it is this honesty that enables us to be sincere not only with God but with one another. This kind of sincerity is based on a confident understanding of God's love that allows us to get beyond the illusion that the self life will fulfill us.
In v.25 of today's passage we read, "But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you."
Having heard the word of God, we believed in the Lord Jesus. It was then that we accessed His promise of eternal life and the Word gave us His life. This is crucial because our ability to love others is dependent upon the source of our love. As we have mentioned many times before God created us with two great needs: to be loved and to love. Most believe life is about being loved, but, in reality it is about loving others. But, we must be loved first in order to love others. We love because He first loved us.
The Apostle Peter wrote this book to a group of believers who were privileged to be given enough contrast to recognize what is substantive. It was a rough time for those scattered believers who had lost everything they had ever owned. The life this world offered them had been stripped away from them. When we find ourselves in that position we are blessed because we are positioned to be able to evaluate correctly. And, when it is all said and done, only two things in this world will last on into eternity. Those two things are the word of God and the souls of people. It is paramount that we invest our souls in the word of God. And, once we have done that, we must invest that which the Lord has given us with others. It is as simple as embracing the culture of God for ourselves and sharing it with those who are hungry.
